Rich was laid off by WotC today. Cheers to his 20+ years and may he have many more.

Though I may not have always agreed with some of his developmental choices regarding the Realms, I often found myself admiring his designer-traits and his ability to carry forth with new and alternate setting ideas.

Rich was laid off by WotC today. Cheers to his 20+ years and may he have many more.

Though I may not have always agreed with some of his developmental choices regarding the Realms, I often found myself admiring his designer-traits and his ability to carry forth with new and alternate setting ideas.

He will be missed.

Agreed, Sage. Even if things developed differently than I wanted, he is still a great designer and writer. Best of luck!

I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.

Rich was laid off by WotC today. Cheers to his 20+ years and may he have many more.

Whatever may be the reason for that, it is not that we are not already used to such news lately from WotC. I hope this does not affect his upcoming Prince of Ravens novel! And man...isn“t this nice one week before Christmas...

Rich's farewell message quoted on EN World says he'll continue working on Prince of Ravens....

Rich was instrumental in bringing us a ton of stuff. Some of my faves:(2E) Planescape Monstrous Compendium, The Will and the Way(3E) Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Magic of Faerūn, Unapproachable East, Lords of Darkness(3.5E) Lost Empires of Faerūn, Tome of Battle, Underdark*

* Well, okay, I confess I didn't really like this last one, not at all in fact, but popularity demands inclusion. 8/9 is still an excellent grade.

You are always welcome to visit Candlekeep, Sir Baker, as often as you like. Your contributions have vastly exceeded the usual entrance fees, though I hope you don't mind if we reassign your nice vacant apartment to some other worthy (and opportunistic) scribe.

But he still gets to write more FR novels after Prince of Ravens, right? At the very least, I hope he could pen a trilogy detailing the new adventures of Aeron Morieth.

Being an employee for WotC/TSR has never been a requirement for novel writers. I don't think it likely that we'll see more of Aeron Morieth, though. He's not been one of the more popular characters, and absent some method of surviving the Sellplague and the timejump, he'll not be around in the 4E Realms. With FR, there has been a notable reluctance to have novels set in anything other than the here-and-now.

Being an employee of TSR/WotC/Hasbro has never been a reason why someone would not participate here.

That was an odd thought.

On the other hand, it may have been suggested that 'in-house' guys don't hang around here, for legal reasons. For instance, if they came up with an idea that was very similar to one that was discussed here earlier, they could be accused of stealing the idea (although ideas can't be copyrighted - only actual written material, and it would only be a problem if 'lifted' verbatim).

For much the same reason that professional musicians can't really listen to, and offer opinions on, the un-published music of others.

But I think he just got tired of the Grognardize - it got pretty bad during the "Rich Baker must be stopped!" campaign. That was like blaming Einstein for the Atom Bomb.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone

Being an employee of TSR/WotC/Hasbro has never been a reason why someone would not participate here.

That was an odd thought.

On the other hand, it may have been suggested that 'in-house' guys don't hang around here, for legal reasons. For instance, if they came up with an idea that was very similar to one that was discussed here earlier, they could be accused of stealing the idea (although ideas can't be copyrighted - only actual written material, and it would only be a problem if 'lifted' verbatim).

For much the same reason that professional musicians can't really listen to, and offer opinions on, the un-published music of others.

But I think he just got tired of the Grognardize - it got pretty bad during the "Rich Baker must be stopped!" campaign. That was like blaming Einstein for the Atom Bomb.

Actually, I think it was mostly an issue of time -- he was doing the same thing on the WotC forums, as I understand it, and that was on top of his normal duties.

Somewhere on the WotC site, I once saw either a picture or a video interview of some WotC staffer who had a "Rich Baker must be stopped!" sign at his desk. I think if his co-workers were joking about it, it must not have been that big a deal to him.

Actually, I think it was mostly an issue of time -- he was doing the same thing on the WotC forums, as I understand it, and that was on top of his normal duties.

Rich Baker confirmed, around the time that he stopped posting here, that his increased workload with Wizards was eating away at the free time he would usually spend either here or on other non-Wizards' sites. That, and the fact that it was making it harder for him to keep track of discussions he could reply to in-between lengthy bouts of absenteeism.

So to simplify things, he opted just to concentrate on what was asked on the Wizards' boards. And encouraged his fans here to post over there -- when relevant -- and freely return here with his replies to queries passed over by scribes of both sites.

"These things also I have observed: that knowledge of our world isto be nurtured like a precious flower, for it is the most preciousthing we have. Wherefore guard the word written and heedwords unwritten and set them down ere they fade . . . Learnthen, well, the arts of reading, writing, and listening true, and theywill lead you to the greatest art of all: understanding."Alaundo of Candlekeep

I'd love to see Rich Baker post here again. His decorum during the worst of the anti-4e backlash was commendable. It made me ashamed of the way some of us (at the WotC forums) were behaving. I count him a gentleman and a scholar.

He supported a back-and-forth open dialogue with the fans long before it became fashionable.

quote:Originally posted by Matt James

I'm going to ask Rich if he will come back to CK now that he has long been removed from WotC. If he does, I ask that no one dog-pile him! :)

He's not my type.

But I'm open-minded, so whatever floats your boat.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone

"These things also I have observed: that knowledge of our world isto be nurtured like a precious flower, for it is the most preciousthing we have. Wherefore guard the word written and heedwords unwritten and set them down ere they fade . . . Learnthen, well, the arts of reading, writing, and listening true, and theywill lead you to the greatest art of all: understanding."Alaundo of Candlekeep